


House Call

by blythechild



Series: Gift Stories 2012 [3]
Category: Criminal Minds
Genre: Developing Relationship, Family, Hurt/Comfort, Kid Fic, M/M, Sickfic, Texting
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-12-16
Updated: 2012-12-16
Packaged: 2017-11-21 07:03:01
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,544
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/594844
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/blythechild/pseuds/blythechild
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Jack is ill and wants to be comforted by Reid instead of Hotch.</p><p> </p><p>This is a gift fic inspired by a reader's prompt. This story is fanfiction and therefore I do not claim ownership over any of the characters herein. It contains mature sexual content and should not be read by those under the age of 18.</p>
            </blockquote>





	House Call

**Author's Note:**

  * For [rambleinblue](https://archiveofourown.org/users/rambleinblue/gifts).



> Thanks to rambleinblue for the prompt and I apologize in advance that this story turned out a little random o_0

Reid was happily lost in his favorite late-night bookshop when the text came in.

_\-- Where are you? --_

He checked the number and then raised his eyebrows in confusion.

_* Downtown. What’s up? *_

_\-- I know it’s late but could you come over? --_

He stared at the message. It was out of character and set his profiler skills on alert. He rarely received texts over the weekends…

_* This message concerns me. Are you OK? *_

_\-- I’m fine. I just need your help with something. --_

_* Be there in 30 mins *_

_\-- Thank you. --_

Reid quickly re-shelved the Camus volume that he was perusing and left the shop with a familiar nod to the owner. Luckily, his car was parked around the corner otherwise it would’ve taken him an hour to get to Hotch’s place.

\---

He rang the bell and the door was answered almost immediately. Outwardly, Hotch was his normal, buttoned-down self, but his eyes were worried. Reid’s senses pinged for the second time in less than an hour.

“What is it? What’s wrong?”

“Thanks for coming. I apologize for disturbing your Saturday… I hope that you didn’t have to break any plans.”

Hotch let him in. Reid found it suspicious that he wouldn’t come straight to the point.

“I was book shopping. It can wait. Will you please tell me what’s going on?”

“Jack’s sick.”

Reid’s heart beat a little faster. Hotch was an experienced parent and an independent man to boot. The fact that he had called someone with zero child-rearing experience to help in this situation suggested that something was amiss. Hotch watched Reid’s reaction and then quickly raised his hands.

“I don’t think it’s serious. The flu has been going around his classmates at school, so it’s probably just that. He’s been running a mild fever on and off all day and there was some vomiting earlier, but he managed to eat this evening and his colour is better. The problem is that he just won’t settle.”

Reid shook his head. “I don’t understand…”

“He’s been asking for you all day, Reid.” Hotch interrupted. “I told him that you were busy but he just keeps asking. I think that if he sees you, he’ll calm down enough to get some rest. At this point, I think that rest is the best medicine.”

Reid just stared at Hotch dumbfounded. Why on earth would Jack find him more comforting than his own father? Sure, they had been spending some time together recently, but Reid didn’t perceive a significant connection on Jack’s part. He didn’t know what to do.

“Will you look in on him?” Hotch coaxed.

“I, uh, I… sure, if you think it’ll help.”

They walked to Jack’s room and found the boy nearly swallowed by the colourful bed sheets, pillows, and stuffed animals that surrounded him. He looked up at the sound of their footsteps and when he saw Reid he perked up and called out his name.

“Hey buddy,” Reid smiled as he edged his way into the room. “I hear that you aren’t feeling well.”

“I barfed.” Jack’s face scrunched up in distaste.

“That sucks. I hate barfing.”

“Yeah. Dad made me chicken noodle soup but the noodles were shaped like animals.”

“Sounds good. Are you feeling a little better?”

“I guess.” Jack shrugged and then peered up at Reid. “Where have you been, Spencer?”

“Jack, I told you.” Hotch said from the doorway. “Spencer’s a busy man.”

Reid felt guilty - he hadn’t been busy at all. He just didn’t want to seem needy, like he had no one else in his life. He had friends and pursuits, but he would’ve gladly tossed them all to spend time here. He just didn’t know what he was doing. He liked being part of a family, and while he was no one’s idea of a suitable parent, he liked hanging around with Jack. The boy didn’t find him odd and seemed to give Reid the benefit of the doubt when most other children would have dismissed him as boring. And then there was Hotch. But that was… _complicated_.

“I’m sorry, Jack. If I had known that you were sick, I would’ve been here sooner.” 

The moment Reid said it he knew that it was the truth. The look that passed over Jack’s face told him that the boy had instantly forgiven him simply because he had said that he was sorry. Amazement swept over Reid; when did we lose that ability to trust so completely, to forgive? If only you could regain that as an adult, if only people could re-learn how to be that honest with one another…

“S’okay. You’re busy like Daddy. I just missed you. Could you tell me a story?”

The thing that Reid was learning about children is that their minds switched gears pretty quickly. He was still trying to absorb how much he meant to Jack as the kid moved on to his next challenge. Hotch called the boy’s name from the doorway, preparing to offer an excuse for Reid.

“Just ‘til I fall asleep…” Jack added quickly. “Just a little while.”

Reid turned to Hotch, his eyebrows raised in an unspoken question. He hoped that he wouldn’t see resentment in the older man’s features. “If Daddy says it’s okay…”

“Sure.” Hotch smiled and nodded. He walked over to Jack’s bed and kissed the boy’s forehead - probably to check his temperature as much as to comfort him. “I’ll leave you two to your adventures. Don’t try and force yourself to stay awake, Jack - you need to rest.”

“Okay, Daddy.”

Hotch nodded to Reid. Something flickered behind his eyes that Reid couldn’t catch, but he left without saying anything. Jack began to shuffle his array of pillows and toys to one side indicating that he expected Reid to fold his man-sized frame into the tiny twin bed beside him. After a bit of awkward arranging, Jack settled into Reid’s side, his little arm stretched across Reid’s torso and gripping the hem of his shirt. Reid looked down as the boy nuzzled his head to fit in a notch made by his ribs. Reid didn’t imagine that it was comfortable but Jack always made a beeline for that exact spot.

“What story would you like to hear?”

“Umm, _The Hobbit_?”

“Well, we left that one off at a scary spot, remember? Maybe you should pick another one. You don’t want to have nightmares.”

Jack looked up at Reid and wrinkled his face in concentration. The boy’s features and colouring were undoubtedly Haley’s but his personality had to belong to Hotch. Despite his gruff and authoritative demeanor, Hotch was gentle, soft-spoken and fun loving in his private life. Reid had always suspected this about his superior given the way the man had treated him from the moment that they were introduced, but it was confirmed when Reid began to spend time in Hotch’s home. Add to that the knowledge that sons try to emulate the traits of their fathers the most between the ages of two and nine, Reid postulated that Jack might be almost the same as Hotch was at his age.

“What about Captain Nemo?” Jack said finally.

 _10,000 Leagues Under the Sea_. Reid nodded approvingly; he was definitely in the mood for some Jules Verne. And if the past were any indication, the adventure would put the boy out like a light. He asked Jack where they had left off, even though it was impossible for him to forget - he just liked to know that the boy retained things. Then he conjured the text in his mind and began to spin the tale.

\---

Reid tucked sleeping Jack into his bed and placed a guard patrol of stuffed animals around him. He stroked the boy’s hair from his face and then quickly flipped his hand to gage his temperature with the back of it. 99 degrees. He sighed and then backed away from the bed, taking one last look around before turning the light off and heading out to find Hotch. He didn’t have to go far - he found the man leaning against the wall in the darkened hallway beyond his son’s room.

“Uh, he seems okay… his temperature’s almost normal.”

Hotch shushed Reid and pulled him away from Jack’s room. They remained silent until they had turned a corner that led to Hotch’s bedroom where they’d be less likely to accidentally wake the boy.

“Hotch, I’m sorry about this…”

Hotch cocked his head in the shadows. “Why are you sorry? You were great - that was exactly what he needed. He’ll probably sleep straight through until the morning.”

“ _You’re_ his dad. He should want you, not me.”

“It’s not a competition, Reid. He knows that I’m here, but when you’re sick sometimes you want something or someone who makes you feel special. You are that to him: an unrelated adult who treats him like an individual. It’s important that he makes these sorts of connections. It’s been hard for him to break away from me ever since Haley died…”

“I’m not a substitute for Haley.” Reid said abruptly.

Hotch went still in the darkness and let his hand fall from where it had been holding Reid’s arm. “I didn’t say you were.”

“I… I” Reid’s pulse hammered at his throat - the wave of panic had come on so suddenly. 

_I don’t know what I’m doing!_

“I… just don’t think that it’s good for him to… depend on me.”

Another long moment of silence stretched between them. Reid wished that he could see Hotch’s face. It was so dark in the hallway… Hotch knew how much Reid hated the dark…

“It was wrong of me to ask this of you.” Hotch whispered finally. “We’ve been spending a lot of time together lately, but I shouldn’t have assumed…”

“Assumed what?”

“That this was anything more than casual.” Hotch’s voice had been maddeningly even until it caught on the last word. He cleared his throat and continued as if he was delivering a profile. “This… situation has a lot of built in complications. It didn’t seem logical to me that anyone would enter into it with only… short-term goals in mind. But I shouldn’t have presumed that you felt the same way.”

Reid’s pulse was now slamming into his jugular. He and Hotch had never discussed their extracurricular friendship. Hotch had made it clear that Reid was welcome in his home, around his son, and Reid had taken that for granted and kept showing up. He felt safe here, wanted. He actually felt his natural tension level ease whenever he was in their presence. That had never happened before but he liked it. Hotch had been very careful to keep a handle on everything, but if Reid had been a braver man, he would have demanded more a long time ago. Now Hotch was standing in the dark talking as if they had had an understanding all along and that Reid wanted to end it.

“I don’t understand what you’re saying.” Reid rubbed his temple viciously. “Do you want me to leave?”

_God, please don’t tell me to leave…_

“Being a mentor to a child is a big responsibility. I never asked you if you wanted that.”

“You never asked me anything.” Reid snapped before he could control his reaction. It didn’t seem fair that what he wanted had been in front of him all along but he couldn’t see it. Now, it was going to be taken away before he’d ever get to experience it.

“Jack’s a great kid and I like being around him. He doesn’t make me feel nervous or awkward or ridiculous… when I’m with him, when I’m here, I feel like I’m a part of something. I’ve never really experienced the feeling before but I’m certain that it’s _good_.”

Reid was now scraping at his temples. _Stop it, stop it… get a hold of yourself and act like an adult!_

“What I don’t understand is that you want me to get close to Jack even though you expect me to leave - or want me to go… which is sorta happening now, I guess…”

“Want you to go?” Reid heard Hotch sigh in frustration. “What do _you_ want, Reid?”

“This… all of this.” Reid gesticulated to the hallway. “But I’m not naïve enough to think that I’ll get it.”

“Why not?”

“Because you don’t want me!” 

“Yes, I do.” Hotch’s voice was quiet, relieved.

“What?”

“Reid…” He felt Hotch’s hand brush the side of his face.

“But I don’t know what I’m doing…” Reid’s voice sounded small.

“Is it so hard to believe that I might not know how to do any of this either?”

Reid hadn’t considered that. He felt Hotch move closer. The warmth of him felt like the final barrier to be broken. A sigh breezed past his cheek and he could almost taste the bitter coffee that Hotch preferred on it. Tonight, there was also a hint of bourbon - perhaps he had needed a little courage before he’d texted Reid. The thought calmed Reid a fraction. Somehow picturing Hotch struggling with this was a relief. It was also stimulating. 

Reid twitched as Hotch’s nose brushed his own in the darkness, but Hotch didn’t make another move to touch him. His warmth radiated from everywhere, as if he was all around Reid, but he still held himself back. Another sigh brushed past Reid and this time it was almost a word. It seemed so fragile that it could barely sustain itself, and suddenly Reid understood completely. Fear could stop almost anything before it started, and when faced with such certainty of failure, nothing looked so threadbare as the hope that kept you fighting. Reid knew it like he knew himself - he just never expected to see it in Aaron Hotchner. 

While he was trying to find the words, his body went ahead without him. He reached into the darkness and pulled Hotch into him. Reid wasn’t polite; his hands fisted in shirt fabric, his lips pulled, parted, and sucked wantonly. He had waited a long time for something that he never thought he’d get. That fearful sigh lit him like a fuse and he consumed as he went, as long as the burn would sustain him. 

Hotch pushed into him and forced their lips apart as they hit the wall with a muffled thud. Reid heard Hotch’s knuckles scrape the wall behind him as he wrapped his hands around Reid’s waist and pulled them together. Reid’s hands reached up to Hotch’s face and pulled him back to his lips, silencing whatever Hotch wanted to say with a moan. Then it was a race with their hands; fingers grasping at necks, pulling at hips, scoring each other’s backs. Their frenzy was silent except for the friction of clothing and the gasps between moments. Reid pulled Hotch’s pelvis into his again, and Hotch broke their kiss saying Reid’s name as if it were a curse.

“Do you want me to stop?” Reid was gasping and terrified.

“No!” Hotch said too quickly. “It’s just… how far do you want to take this tonight?”

“I-I don’t know…”

They should stop. Take it slow. Set up parameters and make sure that they both felt comfortable with where this was going.

Reid kept thinking about Hotch’s mouth. His lips were softer than any man’s had a right to be, and the surprise of having Hotch’s tongue in his mouth was something that he wanted more of immediately. He even liked the subtle burn of Hotch’s stubble against his lips. It was unmistakably male, and combined with the taste of coffee and bourbon, it had now become unmistakably _Hotch_. Reid knew that _this_ was how he would identify Hotch from now on. Not the scowl, not the power suits, _this_.

“We can stop any time you like, just…” Reid surprised himself with his own whisper. “I want to kiss you. I’m not done with that yet.”

Reid reached for Hotch and pulled him in slowly. When their lips met, Reid could feel Hotch’s smile. It was Hotch who teased Reid’s lips open, and it was Hotch who was less than polite this time around.

Hotch’s mouth began to wander, hot and rough, up and down Reid’s neck, along his jaw, and back to his lips. Soft bites and whispered breaths marked the passage, lulling Reid into a stupor of pure arousal. He started to wonder how they would be in bed together. What did Hotch look like naked? Would he be embarrassed by his scars? Reid had more than a few himself… Would he tell Reid what he liked? What would they look like together? A shot of pure lust pierced through him as an image of them appeared in his mind - legs tangled together, backs tense and straining as each tried to reach further, push deeper, hands desperately trying to anchor them as the sheets popped off the edges of the mattress…

Reid suddenly felt a hand brush him. Hotch mumbled something into his neck and then a hand grabbed him and began to stroke him through his pants. Reid yelped and Hotch shushed him, but he didn’t let him go. Reid tried to edge away, but his back was against the wall. Hotch mumbled something else that had the tone of a question. Reid could imagine what it was, and he shook his head, no, finding himself unable to speak. Reid started moving in rhythm with Hotch’s hand when he felt Hotch’s mouth move to his ear.

“Would you touch me too? Please?”

Reid fumbled between them until he found Hotch’s cock and squeezed. Hotch gasped and pulled back. Reid thought that he had done something wrong until Hotch pressed his forehead into Reid’s and began rubbing against him in earnest. Reid was suddenly afforded a new mental image of them grinding against one another, clothes defining and restraining them until one of them broke, head arched back gasping for their next breath…

Reid slid his thigh in between Hotch’s and pulled them together until the pressure was almost painful. Reid felt Hotch against him, moving and warm and _wanted_. There was clothing in the way but he still felt him, and the way Hotch was half choking into his neck, Reid knew that Hotch could feel him too. He rubbed against Hotch until he felt fingers digging into his back. Then he moved his thigh upwards. Hotch made a painful noise and Reid pulled away only to be stopped by a death grip on his thigh.

“Spencer, don’t you dare!”

Reid whispered Hotch’s name into his neck and pushed up again forcefully. Hotch made the same noise but Reid keeping moving. He felt Hotch’s hands move to his ass and hold him firmly. They stood locked together, moving in rhythm as their breathing came like punches to the chest. Hotch ground himself into Reid until it felt unbearable. Reid wanted to yell, to demand that Hotch squeeze him until he passed into delirium. They were quiet - so, so quiet - but inside he yelling out everything he wanted waiting for his restraint to wear thin. He called out Hotch’s name in a way that he had never said it before, in a way that he had never felt before. He said it again and again. Hotch bit down into the juncture between Reid’s neck and shoulder, and Reid was done. He clung to Hotch as everything went distant and dim. He felt himself call out again and forced himself to press up into the body flush against his. Fingers dug into the small of his back and his thigh cramped terribly as Hotch’s whole frame tightened around him. 

Reid held his breath as he felt his body contort and then, mercifully, release. _Wanted - he wanted and was wanted in return._ His body went slack and he became aware of Hotch clinging to him limply, his breathing short and labored against his neck. His legs were shaky but he had a wall behind him and a duty to hold Hotch until he didn’t need it anymore. Reid _definitely_ needed to hold him. Hotch mumbled against him and tried to move.

“S’okay, I’ve got you.”

Hotch stilled for a moment and then sagged back into Reid. It was shameful how good it felt.

They held onto each other in the hallway in silence until their breathing evened and all they could hear were the sounds of the house stretching and settling about them. Hotch turned his head against Reid’s neck and warmed it with his breath.

“Stay.” He whispered.

A tremble vibrated through Reid and he hid a smile in Hotch’s collar. 

“Are you sure? What about Jack?”

“We have to start somewhere and Jack will be the easiest audience we have to face. You’ve seen how accepting he is…”

“Like his father.”

Hotch leaned back and stroked the line of Reid’s jaw. “I want you here. I should have told you long before now.”

Reid buried his face in Hotch’s shirt again. It was too soon to explain how much that meant to him. The emotions were still too raw. Instead, he just nodded his agreement against Hotch’s chest and satisfied himself with the quickening of the even heartbeat beneath his ear.


End file.
